Michael Brennan’s historic stats, Mike Ditka’s legendary golf videos and a slept-on buddies trip destination

Welcome to another edition of The Grind, where we have been stuck in golf purgatory these past couple weeks. On one hand, I’ve had a fortunate run of teeing it up at the best courses I’ve played all year. On the other hand, I’m in my worst golf slump in years, which has put a damper on those rounds. I don’t expect anyone—especially my wife—to shed any tears for me, but that’s the story. So if you find yourself in a similar situation, just know you’re not alone. Maybe I should set up some sort of struggling golfer hotline? In the meantime, here’s what else is going on in the world of golf.

WE’RE BUYING

Michael Brennan: What a weekend it was if you’re a Wake Forest alum. On Saturday, the Deacs destroyed N.C. State to finally move into the top 25 of the college football rankings and on Sunday, 24-year-old Wake alum Brennan won the Baycurrent Classic in Japan for his third PGA Tour title in the past year.

After just one top 10 in his first 22 starts of the year, Brennan has now won two of his past five starts. In fact, Brennan is now the fourth-fastest player to get to three PGA Tour wins since 1970, trailing only Tiger Woods, Collin Morikawa and Jerry Pate.

Pretty darn good company. And speaking of impressive stats, check out this one from Justin Ray:

That’s a combo that’s hard to beat.

Blades Brown: The 19-year-old couldn’t win the Korn Ferry Tour Championship (congrats to Austin Hitt and the rest of the 20 players who earned their PGA Tour cards for next season), but he capped off an impressive season on the circuit, finishing ninth in the season standings despite splitting time between both tours.

We recently had Blades on The Loop pod and it’s incredible how polished this young man is. What a name, what a game. The emergence of Jackson Koivun has perhaps taken some of the attention off Blades, but both have a chance to be all-time great players.

Turning Stone: I’ve praised this place in upstate New York many times through the years since first going on my annual golf trip in 2006. And my newer annual golf trip (yes, my wife is a saint) has gone there a couple times as well. But I was reminded of just how great a spot it was this past weekend during a 36-hour, 54-hole getaway (it’s less than a four-hour drive for me) in which I played all three big courses there, Atunyote, Shenendoah and Kaluhyat (all have been in Golf Digest’s 100 Greatest Public list). And the place continues to expand with its new, sleek hotel, The Crescent, which features Salt restaurant and is still just a walk away from two of the courses. Oh, and the property was popping even more with the fall foliage.

Anyway, somehow I feel like this spot is still slept on. Given the convenience if you live in these parts, it’s tough to beat for a buddies trip—especially for a weekend getaway.

WE’RE SELLING

LIV 2.0: This thing looks to be on life support already after several big names, including Jon Rahm, said they will not be participating. Then the DP World Tour came out and said it will not allow golfers to split time with LIV and gave players a Nov. 16 deadline to pick a side ... and whether they want to be eligible for the Ryder Cup. Just like that, this decision seems pretty bad in hindsight.

What a strange few years it’s been in pro golf.

LPGA Q School situation: Speaking of strange, the LPGA decided to hold the second round of its qualifying tournament at a golf course that is undergoing renovations and still isn't open yet. That situation, along with a lot of bad weather, has now caused this event to be postponed, costing the field a lot of time and money.

The LPGA has made a nice gesture since by taking $1,000 off everyone's tournament entry, but Mother Nature has been particularly annoying this year. Let’s hope these ladies get a good week—and that all golfers have better luck with the weather in 2027.

Betting on golf: Seriously, people, there’s no point. And what happened on the DP World Tour at the Spanish Open is the latest example as Grant Forrest, coming off nine missed cuts in his previous 12 starts, won out of seemingly nowhere. Even the 33-year-old Scot admitted as much after. “I’ve not played well at all,” he said. “To walk away with a win is just unbelievable.”

Congrats to Grant, who also earned a spot in the Masters for the first time. But with this type of randomness, picking winners seems like a total fool’s errand.

ON TAP

The PGA Tour takes a week off, but there’s still plenty of action elsewhere. The LPGA is in China and the DP World Tour is in India. And in (much) more local golf news, the annual Golf Digest Seitz Cup, which pits old vs. young employees (I’m on Team Old. Sigh.) is taking place at the lovely Tamarack Country Club. Here’s a mock Golf Digest cover by Ben Walton of Team Young taking some darn good shots at yours truly:

As mentioned, I’m in a bad slump right now, but on the bright side, the temperature is supposed to get up to 70 for the event!

Random tournament fact: The DP World India Championship will feature three of the four men’s major champs this year in Rory McIlroy, Aaron Rai and Ryan Fox. That’s a pretty impressive field

RANDOM PROP BETS OF THE WEEK

—The Seitz Cup will be live-streamed on HBO Max: 1 MILLION-to-1-odds

—Rory McIlroy will win in India this week: 47-to-1 odds

—Rory McIlroy will order Domino’s Pizza while in India: LOCK

TWEET(S) OF THE WEEK

Loved these LIV tweets from Shane Ryan:

Speaking of Steinbeck, "East of Eden" on Netflix is awesome. Anyway, back to tweet writing, I can’t get enough of the creepy Rumpelstiltskin meme that’s everywhere so I joined the fun:

But as my wife pointed out I should have made it “Telling my wife I’m going on another golf trip” after doing that two weekends in a row. Fair point.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

Eugenio Chacarra shared a pic of the painful foot injury he was dealing with after stubbing his toe in the dark (Been there!), and, well, it’s nasty:

More like Ewgenio, am I right? But seriously, it’s pretty impressive the young Spaniard was still able to finish runner-up in Spain.

VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Mike Ditka was both a hall-of-fame football player and coach, but he was also a solid golfer. And his “For the good of the game” golf videos are fantastic and spot on. Have a look as Ditka addresses topics like slow play, fixing ball marks and leaving clubs on the green:

He might deserve to be in the World Golf Hall of Fame as well for that. Anyway, RIP Coach.

THIS WEEK IN CELEBRITY GOLFERS

LeBron James showed just how serious he’s getting with his game, making a trip to the Titleist Performance Institute to get a full breakdown of his swing:

As a LeBron fan, I’m rooting for him to become great at golf as well. As a Knicks fan, I’m rooting for him to be distracted by golf these next two seasons in Philly.

THIS WEEK IN PUBLIC DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION

Austin Hitt lost his dad to cancer two years ago, but his mom was right there with a big hug following her son’s big win to punch his ticket to the PGA Tour:

You love to see it.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“I’m too inconsistent to be bad all the time.” — Paul Goydos with an all-time quote when asked about briefly being tied for the lead on Saturday at the PGA Tour Champions event. Goydos finished T-9, not too shabby.

THIS AND THAT

Congrats to Miyu Yamashita on setting a course record at New Korea Country Club to claim the Aramco Korea Championship. She has to be the best golfer listed under 5-feet tall ever. . . . Congrats to Vaughn Taylor on topping Alex Cejka in a playoff in the Constellation Furyk & Friends to claim his first PGA Tour Champions title. Coincidentally, it was also a battle of two guys who had close calls at Turning Stone when the PGA Tour played there from 2007-2010. . . . And congrats to Austin Lemieux on shooting a 66 (his dad’s old jersey number) to Monday qualify for next week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship. Even more evidence that Mario Lemieux was better than Wayne Gretzky. (I actually just put that in there to see if my boss and Gretzky superfan, Sam Weinman, is reading.) . . . Pro Shop announced the reboot of the Skins Game is returning again Nov. 27 with a new foursome of Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas, Wyndham Clark, and Jackson Koivun. We’ll get to see if young Jackson’s trash-talk game is as good as his golf game. . . . And, finally, we talked a lot on this week's The Loop podcast about that video of the PGA rules official telling the story of U.S. Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley berating another rules official at Bethpage Black last year getting scrubbed. But our Joel Beall was all over the situation at the time:

Not a great look. Jim Furyk would be wise to avoid a similar situation.

RANDOM QUESTIONS TO PONDER

Which tour pro holds the most course records?

Where is Jon Rahm’s LIV varsity jacket now?

When is my golf slump going to end?